Marriott Team Diaries: August 2026

St. Regis Vommuli

This month, we created 4 new coral frames (2 medium + 2 small), kindly sponsored by guests, the resort, and online. and we have now reached frame number SR0365 ! We also conducted 43 maintenance snorkels/dives and monitored a total of XX existing frames – our twice-yearly monitoring involves cleaning and repairing frames, and uploading new photographs to our website for our kind sponsors. 🙏

To check the progress of your frame, please visit our dedicated St Regis monitoring page where we upload new photos every 6 months or so.

🪸 Coral Reef Maintenance

August was mainly focused on continuing routine coral monitoring and maintenance across the Reefscapers restoration sites at Vommuli. With Hazel away on a well-deserved break for the month, Finn was the sole marine biologist based on the island during August and was responsible for continuing the day-to-day monitoring and maintenance work.

A total of 43 maintenance visits were conducted during this month. Most of our work was focused on the Adopt a Coral site, where maintenance was eventually completed by removing all dead coral from the previous April bleaching. We also deployed new coral frames at the Dive Centre site. Over the coming months, we aim to continue expanding to create a continuous restoration trail that will guide guests from the Dive Centre to our Whale Bar site.

During the past months, our maintenance efforts have focused on recycling and re-establishing coral frames that began showing increased mortality at the beginning of the year. Although the 2026 summer season had a low impact on the restoration frames compared to the mortality during the global 2024 bleaching event, an increase in corallivorous Drupella snails was observed during the post-bleaching period, resulting in some tissue loss and mortality.

Interestingly, several frames that had successfully survived the 2024 bleaching event and subsequently demonstrated strong recovery and growth were among those that experienced substantial mortality during the Drupella outbreak.

BELOW: Our frame #SR0074 retained healthy live coral cover following the 2024 bleaching event, and continued grow and flourish into 2026. But by August 2026, substantial tissue loss and mortality were caused by an outbreak of Drupella snails, highlighting how corallivorous gastropod predation can act as a secondary threat following thermal stress. Here, we have cleaned the frame of dead coral colonies and retransplanted with new coral fragments.

Marine Education & Awareness

🤿 Marine Biology Excursions – One dolphin cruise was attended this month, with a total of 6 guests participating, and two turtle quest snorkelling excursions with 4 guests on each. Megafauna sightings were also recorded during both snorkelling tours/fun dives and routine maintenance visits around the island. The most common megafauna sightings this month were blacktip reef sharks and octopus, along with eagle rays, nurse sharks, hawksbill turtles, and whitetip reef sharks.

🎙️ Marine Talks – Five marine talks were delivered during August: three on sharks and rays, one on sea turtles, and one on corals. These were enjoyed by a multitude of guests and covered species ecology, conservation and the marine life found around Vommuli. One talk was also delivered to new resort colleagues as part of the induction programme, introducing Reefscapers, our coral restoration programme, and the wider marine conservation/education work around the island.

📱 Socials – Three social media stories were created during August, which were subsequently reposted by Reefscapers. These highlighted eagle rays around Vommuli, a coral restoration talk, and frame-making sessions featuring Hazel and Finn.

🆔 NEW! Sea Turtle ID & Monitoring Project – currently includes a structured turtle identification database, sightings log, turtle viewer for accessing individual records and photos, enabling comparisons of repeat sightings. So far, 29 individual turtles have been recorded from Vommuli and neighbouring islands. The system is now set up so that future Reefscapers marine biologists can continue adding sightings and photographs, allowing the dataset to grow over time. Repeat sightings should eventually provide useful information on individual turtles regularly using Vommuli and the surrounding reefs.

👋 Farewell Finn! – This month, we said goodbye to Finn as he successfully completed his Marine Biology Internship with us. Throughout his time at the resort, Finn’s dedication and enthusiasm have played an important role in supporting the marine biology programme. His efforts were especially valuable during our regular coral frame maintenance, where he contributed significantly to the care and restoration of our coral frames and helped ensure their continued development. One of his most valuable contributions was the development of a new sea turtle identification database, which will provide an important foundation for documenting and monitoring individual turtles observed around Vommuli in the future. We are very grateful for all the time, effort and initiative Finn brought to the team during his internship.